At
The End Of Nine Hours And A Half, And About Half An Hour From The Road,
We Saw A Mound Of Earth, Which,
WADY EMSHASH
[P.463] the Arabs told me, was thrown up about fifty years ago, by
workmen employed by Ali Beg, then governor of Egypt, in digging a well
there. The ground was dug to the depth of about eighty feet, when no
water appearing the work was abandoned. At eleven hours and a quarter,
our road joined the great Hadj route, which passes in a more northerly
direction from Dar el Hamra to the Birket el Hadj, or inundation to the
eastward of Heliopolis, four hours distant from Cairo, upon the banks of
which the pilgrims encamp, previous to their setting out for Mekka.
Between this road, and that by which we had travelled, lies another,
also terminating at Kayt Beg. The southernmost route, which, as I have
already mentioned, is frequented only by the Arabs Terabein, branches
off from this common route at about six hours distant from Suez, and is
called Harb bela ma (the road without water); it is very seldom
frequented by regular caravans, being hilly and longer than the others,
but I was told that notwithstanding its name, water is frequently met
with in the low grounds, even in summer. Just beyond where we fell in
with the Hadj route, we rested in the bed of a torrent called Wady
Hafeiry [Arabic], at the foot of a chain of hills which begin there,
and extend to the N. of the route, and parallel with it towards
Adjeroud. Our camels found abundance of pasture on the odoriferous herb
Obeitheran [Arabic], Santolina fragrantissima of Forskal, which grew
here in great plenty.
April 23d.—Our road lay between the southern mountain and the
abovementioned chain of hills to the north, called Djebel Uweybe
[Arabic], direction E.S.E. In three hours we passed the bed of a torrent
called Seil Abou Zeid [Arabic], where some acacia trees grow. The road
is here encompassed on every side by hills. In four hours and a half we
reached, in the direction E. by S. Wady Emshash [Arabic], a torrent like
the former, which in winter is filled by a stream of several feet in
depth.
BIR SUEZ
[p.464] Rains are much more frequent in this desert than in the valley
of Egypt, and the same remark may be made in regard to all the mountains
to the southward, where a regular, though not uninterrupted rainy season
sets in, while in the valley of the Nile, as is well known, rain seldom
falls even in winter. The soil and hills are here entirely calcareous.
We had been for the whole morning somewhat alarmed by the appearance of
some suspicious looking men on camels at a distance in our rear, and our
Bedouins had, in consequence, prepared their matchlocks. When we halted
during the mid-day hours, they also alighted upon a hill at a little
distance; but seeing us in good order, and with no heavy loads to excite
their cupidity, they did not approach us.
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